Ex-Senator James Harlan

HARLAN, LINCOLN, WHITFORD

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 3/24/2011 at 19:42:34

EX-SENATOR HARLAN DEAD
Maquoketa Record
January 18, 1899

Last Survivor of Lincoln’s Cabinet
Passes Away in Iowa.

Ex-United States Senator James Harlan, the last survivor of President Lincoln’s cabinet, passed away in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Thursday. He had been rapidly failing for the last three months. The immediate cause of his death was congestion of the lungs. At the time of his death there were with him his daughter, Mrs. Lincoln; his nephew, James Whitford; the nurse and two or three friends.

James Harlan was elected four times to the United States Senate and served in that body sixteen years. His seat in the Senate was declared vacant in 1857, while he was serving a term ending in 1861, but he was re-elected immediately. He resigned in 1865 to accept from President Lincoln the place of Secretary of the Interior, but was again elected to the Senate in 1866, and served until 1873. He was a delegate to the peace convention in 1801 and at different times was chairman of the Senate committees on public lands, District of Columbia, and Indian affairs. He was a member of the committee on foreign relations, agriculture, and the Pacific Railroad. After leaving the Senate Mr. Harlan became editor of the Washington Chronicle. From 1882 until 1885 he was presiding judge of the court of commissioners of the Alabama claims. He was at one time president of the Iowa University.

Mr. Harlan was a native of Clark County, Illinois, having been born there Aug. 25, 1820. He graduated at Indiana Ashbury University in 1845 and became superintendent of public instruction in Iowa in 1847. In 1853 he became president of the Iowa Wesleyan University and was first elected to the United States Senate in 1855. Originally he belonged to the Whig party.